[oi-dev] Drivers & USB 3 [Was: Resignation as OI Lead]

[Sašo Kiselkov]

On 08/31/2012 07:50 PM, garrett.damore at dey-sys.com wrote:
> 
> On Aug 31, 2012, at 10:00 AM, Damian Wojslaw <damian at wojslaw.pl> wrote:
> 
>> Am 2012-08-31 18:02, schrieb Jim Klimov:
>>>
>>>
>>> That's what I said, though you phrased it better - thanks ;)
>>>
>>> Now, there is a problem with those devices that OI does not see
>>> and can't pass through - such as USB3 ports, or use (such as my
>>> troubles with Wifi and SATA, and I'm not certain about sound
>>> working right)... THAT should be tackled, so that my desktop
>>> hypervisor can offer everything I've bought to those VMs which
>>> might be the more correct tools for certain jobs - such as
>>> skype or heavy tabbed browsing...
>>>
>>>
>>> //Jim
>>
>> So now an open questions that lurks forever: who and when can port drivers for USB3 and WiFi and all other stuff from CDDL friendly operating systems? :)
> 
> USB3 at least is not solely desktop relevant.  I have a backburnered plan to work on this.
> 
> Unfortunately, I don't believe that getting good USB3 type performance is possible with our current USB stack.  (Furthermore, our USB stack is a convoluted mess -- owing largely to the way it was designed using STREAMs -- which actually makes writing USB drivers very unlike any other kind of driver.)
> 
> My long running plan (probably won't get to this until 2013, if I'm honest) is to try to rewrite (perhaps a parallel stack) the USB stack to support USB 3 devices.  It should be implemented to be much more of a typical nexus/leaf driver model.  (Let's be honest, nobody really benefits from the STREAMs architecture that underpins the current stack.  I've never heard of anyone pushing other kinds of modules between USB controllers and leaf devices, for example.)
> 
> The end result will also make it *much* easier to port drivers from other platforms.  (Right now, the USBA is alien enough to all other platform implementations that its almost impossible to borrow any significant logic from any other implementations.)

Would it be possible to lift most of the USB stack from FreeBSD? I mean,
if they are further along, why not partake of their superior features?
Like FreeBSD pulls in ZFS. Open-source means everybody wins.

Cheers,
--
Saso